


Here is Me Looking at You

by MalecAcid



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Aromantic Ben Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Gen, Ghost Ben Hargreeves, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Im not tagging it as a crackfic bc its not a cracfic kfkskd, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Light Angst, No Incest, Pansexual Klaus Hargreeves, Pre-Canon, but i also wouldnt call it a fluff fic, i dont know how to tag this uhh, i guess they need hugs?, i just used that as an example of a type of fic rip jdjsjsks, i wouldnt call this an angst fic, idkkkk how to taggg uhhh, so the obvious answer is to tag them all right?, wouldnt call it a crackfic either
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25819636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalecAcid/pseuds/MalecAcid
Summary: "It's in an hour, room 133. You know where that's at?" He shook his head, and Klaus sighed. "We'll figure it out."~^~Klaus and Ben go to a pride meeting when rehab offers nothing else to cure their boredom. They figure themselves out.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 12
Kudos: 67





	Here is Me Looking at You

**Author's Note:**

> Hiiii okay so I'm really proud of this fic and this fic idea, and I hope you like it 🥺🥺 
> 
> Sidenote: These are my personal hcs, so please do not get mad if they are not the same as yours
> 
> (Title is a lyric from the song Here Comes the End by Gerard Way)

Here they were. In court ordered rehab. Again. 

It wasn't an unusual occurrence, to be fair. At this point, they were both used to it. That didn't make the experience any more fun, any less boring, though. 

The food still sucked, according to Klaus. Who was currently loudly complaining about it to Ben, causing everyone inside of the cafeteria to give him weird looks as he spoke to what seemed to be nothing but the air. 

"This tastes like sandpaper." Klaus groaned, taking the spoon out of the supposed mashed potatoes and throwing it in the direction of the nearby trash can, missing it by a mile as the janitor glared in his direction which he ignored in favor of turning back to face Ben. 

"Why are we here again?" Ben gave him a deadpan look from across the table, crossing his arms tightly over his chest as he glared silently at Klaus, who threw his hands up in surrender at Ben's gaze. "Fine. Maybe I was being a tad bit reckless." Ben raised an eyebrow, and Klaus sighed, collapsing into the table from where he sat, his head banging onto the surface loudly as he spread his arms across the empty area. 

"God, this is so boring." Klaus mumbled, words muffled by the table. 

Ben huffed in response, leaning forward to carefully rest his elbows on the table as he spoke. "Then why don't we do something-"

"You're not talking about one of those activitiy things." He scoffed, cutting Ben off and gaining a harsh look in response. "The ones thumb-tacked to the bulletin board? The ones that Mary told me to go to? _Mary_? No." 

"I don't think that thumb-tacked is a word." Ben mumbled under his breath, ignoring the way his elbow phased through the table slightly as he lost focus on it before speaking up. "It's better than sitting here all day." 

"Is it though? Is it really?" He drew out the words as he tapped his fingers against the table restlessly. Ben gave him an unimpressed look before he spoke again. 

"Why don't you just look at what's on it for today?" He asked, voice almost begging as Klaus stared at him. 

"What is it Benny, finally bored of sitting here in rehab? Better suck it up casper, we've got another three long months ahead of us." Ben rolled his eyes in response as he glanced over to the bulletin board, filled with at least ten flyers of possible things to do. 

"Just _look_." He sighed, rubbing his hands over his eyes in annoyance. 

"Fine." Klaus groaned, standing up slowly and walking with dragging feet towards the bulletin board as Ben trailed behind him. They came up to face it, and Klaus listed off the different flyers with differing levels of disgust. 

"Book club… nope. Definitely not. Cooking club-"

"No." Ben cut off immediately. "You'll burn down this entire building if you went anywhere near an oven." Klaus crossed his arms in response, but didn't deny anything as he continued reading things off. 

" _Knitting_? Of course there's knitting. Of course Mary wanted me to go to knitting-" 

"Continue, maybe." Klaus hissed at him, but continued reading off the flyers anyways without another word in response. 

"Chess. _Ew_. Christ, what is this? A low budget public middle school?" 

" _Klaus_." 

"What? It's true. Not that we would know." Klaus squinted as he continued reading. "Poetry club, Art club, Animal meeting… animal meeting. You think that they'll have an octopus? Maybe we'd find your long lost cousin there. Pride meeting? Pride meeting…" He glanced sideways at Ben who shrugged. 

Turning back to the paper, he squinted at the tiny text and mumbled the time of the meeting under his breath. Grabbing a pen hanging from other club sign up sheets, he wrote the time and room number of the meeting on his wrist, ignoring Ben's exasperated sigh from behind him. 

"It's in an hour, room 133. You know where that's at?" He shook his head, and Klaus sighed. "We'll figure it out. It lasts two hours, so maybe that'll cure your ghostly boredom."

Slowly walking back to their empty table, Klaus collapsed onto it once again, crossing his arms and leaning his head on top of them as he closed his eyes. 

"Why-"

"Shh, no talky talky." He said quickly, ignoring the offended noise Ben made across from him and drifting off into a light sleep. 

* * *

"Klaus. Klaus. Klaus. _Klaus_."

" _What_?!" He demanded, head shooting up from its comfortable place on the cool surface of the table to glare at Ben. 

"Wake up." Klaus gave him a monotone look, and Ben continued. "The pride meeting thing is in ten minutes." 

Klaus groaned. "Why are we doing this again?" 

"Because we're bored." 

"Because _you're_ bored."

"Yup, pretty much." Klaus glared once again before rubbing his eyes with a yawn, standing up and stretching slowly as Ben tapped his fingers against his leg impatiently. 

"Alright. Fine. Let's go." 

Klaus trudged down the hallway towards the room, Ben walking next to him as he mumbled the room numbers under his breath as they passed, saying the number 133 louder when they arrived in front of that door. Klaus glanced down at the pen ink on his wrist to double check the room number before nodding at Ben and opening the door. 

The room was… large. To say the least. The room was split off into seven sections, each labeled with large letters and filled with specific colors. It was full of people, some in the required rehab outfit, like Klaus, and others in everyday clothing, speaking to the other rehab patients. Ben and Klaus looked at each other for a moment, communicating without words before walking their own separate ways. 

Ben moved to the center of the room, spinning around slowly to observe the different sections from afar before coming up to one that was labelled 'ASEXUAL' in big letters. He moved forward to listen to the lady at the front of the section, fully focusing on what she was saying. 

"Asexuality is a spectrum. People on the ace spectrum can experience little to no sexual attraction or experience sexual attraction that differs from the what is considered the norm. Some asexual people still desire a sexual relationship, and/or have a sex drive, but this does not mean they are not asexual." She paused as she looked around the people gathered and listening to her talk, and one spoke up. 

"What about romance?" A young man asked from his spot in the front of the room, and the lady nodded with a smile. 

"This is where the split attraction model comes in. Romantic and sexual attraction are two different types of attraction, and some may choose to label them separately. So, for example, you can be asexual and biromantic." She paused, and pointed to the section across the room labeled 'MSPEC' before continuing. "You can be asexual and any other romantic orientation, including aromantic." She pointed over to a section covered in green and continued to speak, but Ben found himself drifting closer to the direction of the aromantic section that she had pointed out. He found himself sitting cross legged and in the front, intently listening to every word the man in front of him was saying. 

"Aromanticism, just like asexuality and the mspec, is a spectrum. People on the arospec experience little to no romantic attraction, or experience attraction in ways that would be considered unconventional. Some aromantic people want to be in a relationship, and it's important to remember that action doesn't equal attraction!" 

"Some aromantics are also asexual, but some are not. Some are homosexual, bisexual, etcetera." Ben rubbed his eyes at the man's words as he paused, looking around at the people gathered around him as he waited for someone to speak up. 

Ben opened his mouth to ask a question, but quickly snapped it shut before a sound could escape his lips when he remembered that he wouldn't be heard. He bit his lip instead and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands, watching as the people around him asked questions that were answered by the man in front of him. 

Hearing loud footsteps make their way up to where he was, Ben turned his head to face the sound and watched as Klaus stepped forward. 

He sat down beside Ben, crossing his legs and watching the speaker without a word. Ben watched him for a moment before turning back and continuing to listen. 

"There are many micro labels that people on the aromantic spectrum could use if they find the labels useful. There is demiromantic, greyromantic, cupioromantic-" The man droned on, listing off several terms and their definitions as Ben huffed a sigh, frustrated as his unasked question went unanswered. 

Klaus pretended to elbow him in the side before speaking. "Cheer up Benny boy." He mumbled under his breath. "What do you want to know?" 

"What?" Ben stared at him incredulously, and Klaus rolled his eyes in response. 

"You obviously want to know something. What is it?" He asked again, and Ben shifted in his place on the floor uncomfortably. 

"Uh, why?" Klaus huffed and rubbed his temples in annoyance. 

"You might not get another chance to know. Just tell me what you want to me ask. This is the only nice thing you'll ever get from me, by the way." 

Ben sighed, and turned his head to watch the speaker for a moment before turning back to Klaus with a groan. 

"Just… ask whether or not you have to label your sexuality." He said quickly, rushing the words out and squeezing his eyes shut as he waited for Klaus' response. 

"What was that?" Klaus asked teasingly, and Ben opened his eyes just to roll them at him before mumbling a quiet 'asshole' under his breath and turning back to face the speaker. 

When the man paused for questions, Klaus quickly spoke up, and Ben cringed as his loud voice rang out around the fairly quiet area. 

"So do you have to label your sexuality?" He questioned, and the man smiled genuinely in his direction. 

"Technically, you don't have to label anything if you don't want to. So, if you are aromantic and don't want to label your sexuality for any reason, you could consider yourself a non-SAM aromantic. An aromantic person that does not use the split attraction model and deems the label aromantic descriptive enough of their identity." He spoke kindly, pausing after his words as he waited for someone else to ask another question, which both Ben and Klaus promptly tuned out. 

Klaus turned his head away from the speaker to face Ben, who was staring off into space, a contemplating look on his face as he zoned out. 

Klaus rolled his eyes at the sight, a small smile on his face as he stood and left the section without Ben noticing. 

He walked up to the section with multiple colors, labelled 'MSPEC' in big letters, and he sat in one of the far back chairs, fidgeting with his fingers as he off-handedly listened to the lady speaking at the front as she listed off terms along with their definitions. 

"Bisexual… attraction to two or more genders. Pansexual… attraction to anyone regardless of gender…" Klaus perked up at her words, ignoring the way she continued to drone on as he thought to himself. 

When she finally finished speaking and paused for questions, Klaus spoke up. 

"So, pansexual people don't care if someone's a guy, non-binary, genderfluid, a girl, etcetera etcetera-"

"That's right." The speaker cut him off. "The multiple attraction spectrum has many similar identities, but they are all still different from each other." She looked at him fiercely, as if he was going to deny, and he nodded quickly before standing to walk swiftly towards the purple and grey covered section labeled 'ASEXUAL,' and sat in the corner of the room on the floor, leaning against the wall as he listened loosely. 

"Asexuality, like aromanticism, is a spectrum. Just like how there are greyromantics, there are greysexuals too. And if you are an identity on the ace spectrum, that doesn't automatically mean you are also that same romantic identity and vice versa. There are quoisexuals, demisexuals, cupiosexuals and more. The definitions for these micro labels are listed on those sheets of paper. " She pointed towards the table next to where Klaus was seated, and before the people standing from their seats to grab a paper could surround him, he took a paper from the top of the pile and quickly left the area to sit in a less populated area of the room. 

He sat on the floor of the empty section and leaned against the wall, putting the paper he had grabbed on his lap to read. 

"Asexuality is a spectrum… little to no sexual attraction… micro labels…" Klaus muttered the words under his breath as he skimmed through the paper before coming up to the definitions of the identities the lady had mentioned before. 

"Greysexual… rarely experiences sexual attraction, cupiosexual… little to no sexual attraction but wants a sexual relationship, demisexual…" He paused, reading the definition over again before saying it aloud. "Only experiences sexual attraction after a bond is formed… hmm."

"So, you figure yourself out yet?" He heard Ben ask as he walked up, footsteps silent as they always were before he moved to sit down across from Klaus, who only gave him a sarcastic grin in response. 

"Who's to say I hadn't already? Anyways, I think that they're about to close up shop-"

"The pride meeting for this week is officially over!" A voice called out, silencing Klaus as well as the rest of the room. "You can go ahead and make your way out of the room please." 

Ben shrugged and stood, shoving his hands in his hoodie pocket as he waited for Klaus to do the same. 

They waited for everyone else to file out of the room before trailing out the door, only to be stopped by a man before they could leave to Klaus' room. He handed Klaus a flyer before speaking. 

"Will we see you at next week's pride meeting? The speakers coming in are going to be talking about gender, rather than romantic and sexual orientation." He said quietly. 

Klaus turned to look at Ben, who gave a small nod, before turning back to the man. "We'll be there." 

He gave Klaus a slightly confused look, but let him pass through the doorway anyways. 

Klaus trudged to the shared room, suddenly drained of energy, and collapsed onto the bottom bunk of a bed, shoving his face into the pillow and squeezing his eyes shut. 

Ben rolled his eyes at him before carefully climbing up to sit on the unoccupied top bunk, hanging his feet off the side and pulling the book that he had read a million times over out of his jacket pocket, opening it and flipping to his favorite part as he attempted to ignore Klaus' snores.

**Author's Note:**

> Haha btw if I get any fuckers in the comments saying that any of these labels aren't real I will personally commit arson to the device you typed your comment saying that with. 
> 
> Anyways I hope that you liked it 🥺🥺


End file.
